On Monday, he'll hear arguments on whether he's biased and
should step aside

A Green Bay Judge has set an unusual court hearing for this Monday in a
civil child molestation case involving an abusive Catholic priest who is
behind bars.

Brown County Circuit Court Judge Mark Warpinski has been asked to recuse
himself from the case by the victim's attorney for alleged
bias. Monday's hearing will focus strictly on this issue.

Attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, who has handled hundreds of clergy sex
abuse cases, has filed a motion asking Warpinski, a Catholic, to step aside
in a molestation case filed against Fr. Donald Buzanowski and the Green
Bay Catholic diocese. The plaintiff is David Schauer of Marshfield.

According to documents filed in the case, Warpinski was "an agent of
the diocese" at the same time Buzanowski worked at Sts. Peter and Paul
church, but didn't disclose this fact, or other close ties to Catholic officials,
until after he'd made repeated rulings that appear to favor the church over
the victim.

On Friday, Warpinski set the hearing for Monday at 3:40 p.m. He has given
each side six minutes to make their case, and four minutes of rebuttal.

"These serious allegations of bias against this judge are troubling,
as is the sudden and unusual timing of this hearing," said Peter Isely
of Milwaukee, a national board member with SNAP, the Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests. "This brave victim deserves an objective process
and has already suffered because the judge released information about confidential
settlement discussions."

Last month, Warpinski put, in a publicly accessible file, information about
settlement talks between the two parties. The information later appeared
in a newspaper story, and Warpinski said it had been a mistake.

Court papers cite Warpinski's years as President of the
Board of Education for Notre Dame Academy, a Catholic school that gets financial
support from the diocese, as evidence of bias. He also notes that Warpinski
quickly tossed out Schauer's case, a decision that was
overturned by an appeals court.

That court instructed Warpinski to allow Schauer to do discovery, but Warpinski
told Schauer's attorney that he could ask only five questions
of church officials.

"It's very rare that a clergy molestation case goes to trial, especially
in Wisconsin," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director
of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's even
more rare that a judge in such a case is asked to recuse himself. We hope
he does so."